Just
to the north of Naples, in the province of Caserta,
is the Roccamonfina Regional Park. It is in the hills just
north of the Campanian plain and the Volturno river and bounded on
the other side by the Garigliano
river valley. The area contains the towns of
Roccamonfina, Sessa Aurunca, and Teano, among others. The
area is rich in history, from the "cyclopean" (very large)
walls of pre-Roman Italic peoples
to Roman ruins to medieval towns and churches, to Teano
(where Garibaldi and King Victor Emanuel met and shook
hands in 1861 to seal the future of the new Italy.
Dramatic history lasted all the way up into WWII;
the area borders on the Liri valley, called "Death Valley"
by soldiers of the Allied armies advancing on the
ferocious German defenses at Monte
Cassino in 1943.

The Roccamonfina park, itself, is an area of some
11,000 hectares (27,000 acres). The most prominent part of
the park is the Roccamonfina volcano, the oldest volcanic
complex in the Campania region of Italy. The geological
history of the Roccamonfina volcano had three main
eruptive periods: (1) 630,000 - 400,000 years ago; (2)
385,000 and 230,000 years ago); (3) a period that ended
50,000 years ago, just as the better known eruptions to
the south, i.e. the Archiflegrean
caldera and, later, Mt. Vesuvius were about to
start.

The
most remarkable thing within the Roccamonfina park
is the presence of early "human" footprints, or at least
footprints made by our hominid ancestors. There are 56
such impressions on the slopes of the volcano, footprints
laid down between 325,000 and 385,000 years ago, during
the second eruptive period of the volcano. The prints
display raised arches and ball and heel impressions; they
were left by a small band of individuals, from 3-6
persons. The prints and length of stride indicate that
they were under five-feet tall. The individuals belonged
to a pre-human species, probably to the hominid ancestor,
Homo
heidelbergensis, the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis
and Homo sapiens.
If these assessments are correct, they are the oldest
prints of the Homo
genus ever found. Although the prints were first
reported reliably and scientifically just a few years ago
in 2003, the prints have been known to locals for
centuries and have earned the name in folklore as the Ciampate del Diavolo—the
Devil's footprints. After all, who else could run through
molten lava?

If the estimates of the size of the individuals are
correct, they were somewhat shorter than the typical adult
Homo
heidelbergensis. Maybe anomalous individuals,
or maybe a group of children. Whoever they were, they were
running and scrambling downhill (there are also hand
prints to indicate that they reached down to steady
themselves on the steep terrain). Most likely they were
fleeing an eruption. Think about it —they ran for their
lives through lava still hot enough to take the imprints
of their feet. We don't know if they made it.to Ancient World
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